Ugly Weather.

I took this photo yesterday on the way to the store. Lots of bad weather lately. Too windy some days, too rainy others . . . severe weather and weekends are friends lately. Hoping to so some fishing soon. Go away tornadoes and low pressure systems.

Fly Fishing for Crappie . . . my stuff

Manufacturers sell lures that attract fisherman. Sure, you can catch fish with them too. Some folks seem to think color comes into play . . . and it does. However, I am beginning to think that color may be just another advantage to land something that very well may tag your fly at most anytime.

I am sure that structure helps when targeting crappie. I do also believe that those tubes and jigs help attract panfish. BUT, I also believe that . . . and this is obvious, you can catch crappie anytime you want . . . GIVEN THE PROPER SETTING . . . structure, water temps, etc.

Spring time is as good as any to hit these puppies . . . and I always do well on Clousers. Chartruese and white. Pink and chartruese and brown and yellow . . . tied to sinking line. I was landing some today on a Bett's Popper using sinking line - the fly was below water and fish were still hitting it.

I was foul hooking them and catching them as I repositioned my kayak . . . ahhh, today was awesome. If you are looking to be successful when fly fishing for crappie, I would suggest early Spring. Use minnow patterns and strip your line in slow to medium pace. They do tend to soft strike but they can also hammer the heck out of the fly too.

They are a good fight on a 3 wgt. and 5 wgt. And as today, they fought well on an 8 wgt. I hooked my biggest slab ever but did not boat it. I figured it for a large bass. I would say it was at least 3 lbs. YUMMY! It was pretty.

I fished some structure but did better along one side of the bank - picking up singles, not really hitting a school. If it wasn't for the wind picking up, I figure instead of landing 10 crappie, it may have been 20.

One of my best outings for crappie . . . and large bream. Just a thought - here I am tying all these flies and I am still mosty using store bought flies, lol.

Nice slab - will post more pics and stuff later.

Nuff said . . . good day out. Will post info later.

Tom Nixon - Fly Tying and Fly Fishing for Bass and Panfish

Below, you will find a link to the 3rd ed. of "Fly Fishing and Fly Tying for Bass and Panfish" by Tom Nixon. The ebay seller is listed as Tom Nixon jr., which very well may be the case . . . based on it's a local publisher and I think Tom was pushing these before his death. At least, that's what some of the folks I used to swap flies with were mentioning - as some were members of the same fly club as Tom.

I just want to promote a book that helped me establish some patterns for warm water species. Some of them are Tom's patterns and some are custom/variants. There are detailed diagrams and steps - I have the 1st or 2nd edition . . . color photos and all. I do think he was a pioneer, granted he's not Henschall nor invented the Peckinpaugh Popper.

But he did design the .56%er and Calcasieu Pigboat . . . among others.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260679633311&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT#ht_500wt_1156

Crappie on the fly . . . again. sac au lait, strawberry bass.

The genus name Pomoxis derives from the Greek πώμα (cover, plug, operculum) and οξύς (sharp). The common name (also spelled croppie or crappé), derives from the Canadian French crapet, which refers to many different fishes of the family Centrarchidae.

Other names for crappie are papermouths, strawberry bass, speckled bass or specks (especially in Michigan, speckled perch, calico bass (throughout New England),[8] sac-au-lait (in southern Louisiana, lit "bag of milk")[9] and Oswego bass.[citation needed]

Man!!! I have got to find a good school of large crappie!! Need to fry up some slabs, hmmmm.